With the announcement of an upcoming "Meet Your Mentor" event, we spoke to Brett and Clare from Rio Tinto, to hear their experiences in a mentoring relationship. Brett and Clare were partnered together for a one year mentoring relationship at Rio Tinto, 5 years on and they are still regularly catching up and facing life with a little help from each other.
CLARE: I don’t remember the first time I met my mentor Brett, but I remember we have always been able to talk, listen, and respect each other. I asked to be partnered with Brett when our graduate mentoring program began, and we have hit the ground running since.
We started by setting out how we would work together and what I was interested in. Brett is a mining engineer while I am a mechanical (biomedical) who started in the mining industry; the difference in technical discipline worked well for us. We worked through road blocks I faced in my role and discussed the experiences I needed to be able to progress my career.
When I started a secondment on site in Central Queensland, there were more catch-ups with Brett. I was struggling being on-site and doing a job I didn’t think I was good at. Brett was incredible at working through the latest issue I was freaking out about. He helped me see that I was ok, that I was capable.
After the Rio Tinto graduate program, Brett offered me a role in his team, something I never expected but was grateful for. I was also offered a role in central Queensland. Brett and I reviewed my options and the benefits an on-site role would give me in having a grounding in the business.
Personal circumstances led me to decide to stay in Brisbane; I was so worried he would be upset with me for not taking his advice in pursuing an on-site role. Instead, he said I made the right decision for me, the nicest response I could have got.
Our mentor/mentee relationship stopped while I worked in his team, but I continued to learn from him and see his management style up close. A year later I applied for a new role and surprised myself when I was successful. Brett and I again talked about the role and what it would mean for my career. Brett helped me see the options and was supportive of my decision to take on the challenge.
I think one of the reasons our mentoring relationship has lasted 5 years, is that I have always sought, respected and been grateful for Brett’s opinion, and Brett has been supportive of my decisions. He has let me fail safely, plus we’ve had some good eye-rolls and laughs along the way.
Today we still catch-up, there is no set time or reason. When you find that person you click with, it can change your career!
BRETT: I first met Clare when the graduate cohort for the next year attended our end of year team planning session. Clare was amongst a group of graduates that we threw into the midst of a team who were rapidly growing and still storming relationships; she showed a poise and maturity I didn’t expect.
A few months into the new year I was approached by the HR team to gauge my interest in being a mentor for one of the graduates, which posed a conundrum. On one hand, having spent many years in mine operational roles and having a couple of valuable mentors myself, I believed I had something to offer and give back. However, I was really new to this company, and felt that I might struggle helping somebody navigate the politics and processes of the business.
I decided to commit myself as a mentor, received a pack of information on what is expected of a mentor in the business, some tips and a profile of my mentee, Clare.
While I knew Clare and had spoken to her in the kitchen and in the hallways, our first meeting was still a little awkward. We decided that like all good engineers, we would establish a process – one which would form the framework as to how, when and why we interacted. This helped us to become of great use to each other in short time.
It is probably a good thing that at the time I didn’t know that Clare had requested me as a mentor, because I would have felt greater pressure around expectation. Clare had taken a wild step outside her direct field of Mechanical (Biomedical) engineering and joined a large mining company, whereas I was a mining engineer very much at home at Rio Tinto. Being a mechanical engineer in mining actually has you doing very little engineering, your time is spent delivering projects and managing other people to solve complex problems. Discussions about people soon dominated our interactions.
Shortly after, Clare was seconded to one of our projects in central Queensland. During this period, there were many phone calls and coffee catch-ups. I had deep technical experience which Clare found useful, but most beneficial was having somebody to talk through options with or just an alternate point of view.
Clare has come to me many times for specific advice on individual projects right through to career advice. It is pretty humbling that somebody seeks you out to have these conversations. I know Clare thinks she hasn’t taken much of my advice over the years, but that is not the case. A key thing for me has been understanding that my role is to help her explore things, to decide what is really important to her and then do everything I can to make that decision a reality.
Our relationship has changed over the last five years. Clare has gone from a graduate in a different team, to being a member of my team and then onto different business units in the company. However we still catch-up, sometimes for advice, sometimes I need her to connect me with other people in the company, but every conversation is engaging and a challenge.
A mentoring relationship can be challenging because we all have stuff going on in our lives. There are times when Clare had wanted to catch-up and my diary was a mess, but making time to have those discussion helped realign me. It served as a constant reminder that technical solutions are only half the answer. It also fills you with a fair bit of pride when you see what your mentee can accomplish and knowing that in some small way you were a part of that.
YEAQ and CLM invite mentors and mentees to sign up to the Engineers Australia Brisbane Mentoring Programme, kicking off with a Meet your Mentor event to meet your potential mentors with informal networking and a speed mentoring session. Young engineers (35 years and younger) and engineering students from all disciplines and industries are invited to participate. We are also looking for mentors with 10+ years’ experience; this is your chance to give back to your profession to share your experiences and knowledge gained throughout your career. For more information visit the official event page.